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J 

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20X 

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28  X 

32  X 

The  copy  filmed  hara  has  baan  raproducad  thanks 
to  tha  ganaroaity  of: 

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L'axamplaira  filmA  fut  raproduit  grica  i  la 
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Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  ba^t  quality 
possibia  eonsidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibillty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacificationa. 


La*  imagaa  suivantat  ont  M  raproduitas  avtc  la 
plus  grand  »oin.  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattat*  da  l'axamplaira  filmi,  at  an 
conformity  avac  laa  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 


Original  copiaa  in  printad  papar  eovors  ara  fllmad 
beginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  improa- 
sion,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  beginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  impraa- 
sion,  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuatratad  impraaaion. 


Laa  axamplairaa  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  aat  ImprimAa  sont  filmis  an  commancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  lacond 
p2at.  salon  la  caa.  Tous  las  autras  axamplairas 
originaux  sont  filmts  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraasion  ou  d'illustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darniira  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microfiche 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  ->^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"!, or  the  symbol  ▼  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  appliaa. 


Un  dee  symbolaa  auivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
darniire  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  salon  la 
caa:  la  symbole  — »  signifie  "A  SUIVRE".  le 
symbole  ▼  signifie  "FIN". 


Mapa.  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  expoaure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  framea  aa 
required.  The  following  diagrama  illuatrata  the 
method: 


Lea  cartea,  planches,  tableaux,  etc..  peuvent  etre 
filmis  i  des  taux  de  reduction  diff^rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  ixt» 
raproduit  en  un  seul  clich*.  il  est  filnia  i  partir 
da  Tangle  supirieur  gauche,  de  gauche  i  droite, 
et  de  haut  an  baa.  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'imegea  nicaaaaire.  Lea  diagrammas  suivants 
illuatrent  la  mithoda. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MICROCOfY   RESOLUTION   TIST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


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1^ 


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Hi  1^ 

2.2 


^2 


2.0 


1.8 


^  /APPLIED  INA^GF 

^Br  1653   East   Main   Street 

y.a  Rochester,   New  York        1460-^       J5A 

'^S  (716)  482  -  0300  -  Phone 

^B  (716)   288  -  5989  -  Fox 


THE 

ATTRACTIVE 

WAY 


WILFRED 

T. 

GRENFELL 

M.D. 


V 


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"I  AM  \BSOLmiiLY  CON- 
VINCI  I)  rilAr  TO  IGLLOW 
CHRIS  I    IS  THF.  BLSr  WAV.' 


* 


MmMm 


1^ 


National  Library       Bibliolheque  nationale 
of  Canada  dj  Canada 


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/^      y^  ^«*-  ^tf  -, 


£. 


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'TO  FOLLOW  CHRIST  IS 
THE  MOST  PROFITABLE  A^sD 
CONLMON  SENSE  THING  FOR 
US    rO  TRY  TO  DO." 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  WAY 


I 


I  THE 

ATTRACTIVE  WAY 


BY 


WILFRED  T.  GRENFELL,  M.D. 


THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 

BOSTON  NEW  TORK  CHICAGO 


! 


I      I! 


i 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTR 

I.  How  TO  Find  It '^°l 

II.  "Don't"  vebscs  "Do" |2 

III.  "Ccbbt-Holinq"  Relioion    ....  2s 

IV.  The  Doctor  to  the  Minister 

A   DULOQUE gjj 

V.    The  Minister  to  the  Doctor 

Another  Dialogue 43 


i 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  WAY 


HOW  TO  FIND  IT 

rpHAT  all  human  life,  and  mine  in 
-■•  particular,  can  have  a  high  purpose 
and  a  glorious  future  is  with  me  an 
axiom.  I  have  no  message  for  any  man 
who  insists  that  life  is  purposeless  and 
fruitless;  thcigh  I  would  certainly  agree 
that  it  is  fruitless  if  purposeless,  and 
purposeless  if  fruitless.  That  we  want 
to  win  whatever  prize  our  life  makes 
possible  is  a  corollary;  and  that  there  is 
a  way  to  win  it,  is  another.  I  look  upon 
myself  simply  as  a  wayfarer  quite  ca- 
pable of  losing  the  way,  as  I  have  often 
done  in  our  arctic  snow-helds  and  among 
these  impenetrable  fogs.  I  am  abso- 
lutely convinced  that  to  follow  Christ  is 
the  best  way  and  that  if  that  way  does 
not  attract  every  one  to  it  the  fault  is 
ours,  who  claim  to  be  trying  to  walk  it. 
In  other  words,  to  follow  Christ  is  the 
[3] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


most  profitable  and  common-sense  thing 
for  us  to  try  to  do.  I  am  certain  that  if 
it  were  rightly  represented,  his  work  and 
way  have  met  with  such  success  already, 
and  mankind  has  been  so  altered  by  his 
influence,  that  his  way  would  make  an 
attractive,  natural,  and  effective  appeal, 
whereas  now  many  men  are  indifferent 
or  averse  to  it. 

Life  is  a  current.  Yet  we  need  not  be 
always  trying  to  dam  it  up  and  bring 
it  to  a  standstill.  The  conservatism  of 
to-day  is  the  liberalism  of  yesterday. 
God  can  still  look  after  his  own  business, 
as  he  has  done  through  the  ages,  with- 
out having  us  denounce,  criticize,  and 
judge  those  who  do  not  see  eye  to  eye 
with  us.  The  criticism  of  others,  by 
men  who  think  they  possess  a  monopoly, 
is  worse  than  any  gossip  of  the  tea- 
table.  We  are  repeatedly  forbidden  to 
judge  others;  and  yet  we  who  t.ank  we 
are  on  "the  way"  do  not  seem  able  to 
forgo  the  pleasure  which  weak  humanity 
finds  in  promoting  criticism  and  scandal. 

W^e  have  forgotten  that  humility  is 
an  essential  characteristic  of  "the  way." 
The  most  intellectually  humble  men  are 
[4] 


i 

!1 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

invariably  to  be  found  among  the 
world's  greatest  scholars  and  famous 
scientists,  while  the  most  self-assertive 
and  oflfensive  have  been  found,  too  often, 
among  those  who  were  professedly  the 
most  earnest  representatives  of  the 
Christ;  and,  alas,  they  have  many  ex- 
ponents to-day.  More  humility,  more 
common  sense  of  a  cheerful  kind,  and 
more  hard  work  are  what  are  needed  in 
us,  whose  lives  are  the  real  advertise- 
ments for  "the  way,"  if  we  wish  to  make 
it  attractive  to  the  modem  young  men, 
the  maker;:,  of  the  future. 


Many  Paths,  One  Goal 

Of  course  not  all  men  can  agree  at  one 
time  as  to  what  is  really  most  desirable. 
You  have  only  to  go  into  the  street  and 
ask  the  first  half  dozen  men  whom  you 
meet  the  simplest  question,  to  find  that 
in  methods  scarcely  two  men  ever  agree, 
even  while  the  main  aim  of  all  may  be 
identical.  Yesterday  three  of  us  started 
to  go  to  the  hospital  over  a  distance 
of  some  ten  miles,  for  at  ten  o'clock  I 
had  an  important  operation  to  perform. 

[5] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

After  disagreeing  as  to  whether  dog, 
sledge  or  boat  would  be  quicker,  two 
voted  for  boat,  and  so  we  went  in  that 
way.    Three  miles  out  we  met  floe  ice 
tight  to  the  land.    One  of.  the  two  who 
had  voted  for  boat  now  wanted  to  re- 
turn and  take  a  dog  sledge.    One  voted 
for  hauling  the  boat  up  on  the  rocks  and 
walking,  and  one  for  punting  through 
the  ice  if  possible.    We  ended  by  agree- 
ing,   for    expediency's    sake,    that    all 
should   adopt   the  sami  method,   and 
work  hard  at  it;   and  we  plumped  for 
the  boat. 

For  the  first   ialf-hour  leads  of  open 
water  close  to  the  feet  of  the  cliffs,  in 
spite  of  the  breaking  seas,  allowed  us  to 
gain  about  two  miles;   then  it  became 
imperative  to  keep  off  among  the  ice, 
now  jumping  on  the  pans  and  poling  or 
dragging  the  boat,  now  hauling  her  over 
flat,  level  sheets.    At  the  end  of  an 
hour's  hard  pounding,  with  our   eyes 
fixed  on  the  immediate  work,  we  hap- 
pened to  look  up  to  the  hills.    The  floe 
had  been  carrying  us  bodily  north,  and 
we  were  exactly  where  we  had  started. 
However,  we  "plugged  at  it,"  and  even- 
[6] 


ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


\\ 


tually  made  our  app<.lntmeiit  with  five 
minutes  to  spare. 

On  looking  back  we  calculated  that 
we  would  have  accomplished  the  task 
equally  well  by  any  of  the  three  methods, 
if  we  had  been  in  earnest,  and  worked 
as  hard.  I  fail  to  see  now,  even  by  the 
light  of  experience,  which  was  the  ideal 
way.  The  trouble  was  we  did  not  know 
which  way  was  ideal  and  had  no  means  oi 
finding  out.  We  had  no  guide  to  whom 
to  appeal  and  could  only  judge  by  our 
past  experience.  If  we  had  been  pro- 
vided with  fast,  strong  horses,  or  a 
railway  train,  land  would  have  been  the 
ideal  way;  if  our  ice-protected  motor 
boat  had  not  been  still  buried  deep  under 
a  snow-bank,  sea  would  have  been  the 
ideal  way;  if  we  had  had  an  aeroplane 
—  well,  we  might  or  might  not  have 
arrived — we  should  have  tuought  it 
ideal  anyway.  The  road  is  very  hilly, 
and  a  long-winded  runner  subject  to 
seasickness  would  have  won  out  best  by 
land;  a  short,  stocky,  fat  fellow,  best  by 
boat;  —  and  none  of  us  could  drive  an 
aeroplane  in  any  case. 

No  human  being  can  devise  any  one 
[71 


r^K^ 


I' 


THE    ATTRACTIVE 


plan  which  is  best  to  help  every  kind  of 
man,  since  men  differ  so  radically  that 
what  helps  one  hinders  another,  ^aul 
claimed  thai  all  knowledge  or  science  is 
a  current  thing,  transitory,  passing  away 
with  the  flight  of  time  and  the  evolution 
of  wisdom.  His  has  certainly  passed 
away  in  every  single  intellectual  position 
which  can  to-day  be  called  science.  We 
hold  neither  his  chemistry,  physiology, 
physics,  •  stronomy,  botany,  geology,  or 
any  othe:-  "ology."  Only  those  advo- 
cates of  any  plan  of  life  are  attractive 
and  persuasive  who  show  humility  and 
charity. 

No  Universal  Method 

In  the  most  recent  text-books  which 
tell  us  how  to  restore  to  health  the  poor 
fellow  upon  whom  I  was  hastening  home 
to  operate  this  morning,  there  are  at 
least  ten  different  methods,  all  equally 
highly  recommended.  Each  individ- 
ual's method  is  often  the  result  of  the 
clinic  in  which  he  was  brought  up,  or  of 
his  own  peculiar  intellectual  gifts;  and 
the  stronger  these  influences  are,  the 
more  convinced  the  man  is  that  his  is  the 
[8] 


':JSi^ 


Ll  THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

only  way.  Fortunately  in  matters  deal- 
ing with  physical  life  the  exponents  of 
methods  have  never  be<  ,ed  to  offer  the 
abuse,  inflict  the  injuries,  and  express 
the  contempt  for  those  who  differ  from 
them  which  have  so  unworthily  charac- 
terized many  who  claim  pre-eminence  of 
infallibility  for  their  own  methods  of 
restoring  to  moral  and  spiritual  health 
the  sick  in  heart  and  soul. 

In  the  endeavor  to  restore  physical 
healtii  there  have  arisen  many  schools 
and  each  has  its  ardent  adherents. 
But  with  the  increase  of  knowledge  we 
have  come  to  recognize  that  the  most 
successful  way  is  always  that  which  is 
most  natural,  or  which  most  closely  imi- 
tates Nature's  way,  —  which  means 
simply  the  way  of  the  great  Giver  of  Life. 
Humanity  has  not  discovered  an  ideal 
way  in  things  pertaining  to  physical 
life,  and  we  have  no  right  to  suppose 
that  there  is  any  possibility  of  our  fully 
attaining  the  ideal,  viz.,  the  power  to 
prolong  mortal  life  till  it  shall  become 
eternal.  We  know  of  no  surgically  in- 
fallible representative  of  God  here  on 
earth,  in  the  past  or  the  present,  to  whom 

19] 


kimmh 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

we  can  go,  so  that  by  receiving  his  in- 
struction or  imitating  his  methods  we 
may  reach,  or  ever  even  agree  on,  a 
universally  acceptable  »  "'hod. 


The  Desire  to  be  Helpful 

Christ  restricted  himself  to  laying 
down  great  principles,  applicable  to  all 
ages,  leaving  mankind  to  adapt  them  to 
peculiarities  of  time  and  place.  A  life 
which  adorns  these  principles  and  illus- 
trates them  in  a  common-sense  way  is 
now  attractive  to  all  men.  Men  to-day 
are  more  chivalrous  than  were  the  blood- 
thirsty Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  and 
enjoy  doing  helpful  things,  and  that  at 
personal  cost,  even  though  they  do  not 
wish  and  will  not  acknowledge  any 
labels.  Ti.e  ideal  is  no  longer  "not 
do'ng  wrong,"  or  even  the  ^:  'lilelessness 
of  the  Colonel  Newcome  type;  modern 
young  men  love  "  something  doing,"  that 
is  achievement.  I  remember  Phillips 
Brooks'  words,  "What,  you  say,  the  man 
who  imperfectly  understands  Christ, 
who  doesn't  know  anything  about  his 
divinity,  who  denies  the  great  doctrines 

[10] 


[k^Mti^ 


f  I 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

of  the  church  regarding  him,  is  he  a 
Christiau?  Certainly  he  is,  my  friends. 
There  is  no  other  test  than  this,  the 
following  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  cannot 
sympathize  with  any  feeling  that  desires 
to  make  the  name  of  Christian  a  nar- 
rower name.  I  would  know  any  man  as 
a  Christian,  rejoice  to  know  any  man  as 
a  Christian,  whom  Jesus  would  recognize 
as  a  Christian,  and  Jesus  Christ,  I  am 
sure,  in  those  old  days,  recognized  his 
followers  even  if  they  came  after  him 
with  the  blindest  sight." 


h 


r 


u 


DON'T  VERSUS  DO 

FOR  many  years  I  had  been  inter- 
ested in  what,  for  lack  of  other 
description,  I  am  bound  to  call  "the 
religious  life"  of  the  people  in  a  certain 
fishing  village.  Young  men  had  grown 
to  beyond  middle  age  since  I  first  knew 
them  and  were  still  steadily  adhering  to 
three  Sunday  services  and  three  week- 
day meetings.  I  had  already  pointed  it 
out  as  a  place  where  the  beautiful  results 
of  a  true  Christian  religion  were  beyond 
question. 

Some  of  the  leading  men  had  been 
discussing  the  morality  of  one  or  two 
richer  men  in  the  harbor  who  had  taken 
out  grants  for  the  land,  were  cutting  it 
up  into  lots,  and  making  newcomers  pay 
for  it.  They  had  decided  that  it  was 
not  Chriitian.    A  little  later  I  was  talk- 

[121 


f^afSr£^„® 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

ing  to  one  of  them,  a  really  first-class  old 
fellow. 

"Uncle  Joe,  didn't  you  take  a  Govern- 
ment grant?" 

"Yes,  Doctor." 

"Haven't  you  sold  four  lots  already?" 

"Why,  yes.  Doctor.  It  gives  me  a 
few  cents  in  my  old  age." 

"I  thought  you  said  it  was  wrong  to 
take  up  the  land  and  sell  it  to  new- 
comers." 

"So  it  is.  Doctor,  so  it  is.  But  you 
see  we  be  only  poor  men."  Religion 
here  was  theory,  not  practise;  none  of 
the  others  had  any  land  to  sell. 

Applying  Religion  to  Forestry 

Another  time  the  best  thinking  men 
in  the  place  had  agreed  that  in  order  to 
try  and  save  the  beauty  of  the  harbor 
and  to  attract  visitors  there,  who  would 
spend  money  for  the  benefit  of  those 
incapacitated  for  earning  their  living 
by  fishing,  a  law  should  be  passed  for- 
bidding the  cutting  of  the  trees  within 
a  certain  radius  of  the  harbor.  During 
a  trial  of  one  of  the  men  for  breaking 

[131 


u    «<i~ii^ 


=>,  T^  /r.'-T  .^•^»=n^  /*»-<"T-v  f%  ^ 


-.T^i 


'(T.-^^y^ 


ATTRACTIVE 


WAY 


the  law,  one  or  two  men  asked  leave  to 
speak.    One  of  them  was  the  leader  of 
the  "revival"  services' which  were  being 
held  in  the  harbor.    He  wanted  to  state 
his  opinion  that  "the  fishermen  were 
not  'out  for  beauty,  but  for  comfort.' 
They  didn't  see  why  the  men  should 
not  cut  down  the  few  little  trees  left 
and  grub  up  the  roots  as  well,  as  has 
been  done  in  other  places."    The  Bench, 
which  had  not  "got  religion"  by  their 
standard,  tried  to  point  out  that  it  would 
be  only  for  a  short  while  that  they  would 
derive   the  slightest   benefit,  and  that 
it  would  injure  the  place  permanently. 
Moreover,  a  beautiful  home  and  harbor 
always  help  one  to  Hve  a  beautiful  life. 
Cutting  the  trees  spoiled  the  gardens, 
as  the  snow  all  drifted  away  and  left 
the  bare  ground.    It  kept  all  those  who 
were   unable,  like  him,  to  go   fishing 
without  a  chance  of  employment.    No 
ma?   could  live  to  himself  anyhow. 

But  the  man  went  away  declaring  that 
he  did  not  see  what  he  was  going  to  get 
out  of  it,  and  he  thought  a  man  should 
do  as  he  liked  for  his  comfort.  Business 
being  over,  he  could  now  go  back  to 
[14] 


W, 


J 


F^«3 


■'..» 


li^^^  m^c^^  -m^:^  p,  c^^-w 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

religion  for  the  evening.  Even  these 
trifling  instances  suggest  how  such  paro- 
dies o'  Christ's  way  have  made  it  seem 
contemptible  in  the  minds  of  thinking 
men. 

The  Doer  Always  Acclaimed 

The  healthy  human  mind  rejects,  the 
vigorous  youthful  mind  rejects,  and  the 
younger  and  more  healthful  they  are 
the  more  they  do  not  care  to  hide  the 
fact  that  they  hate  the  doctrine  that  the 
ideal  way  is  "not  to  do."  The  policy 
of  Fabius  Cunctator  is  possibly  com- 
mendable only  when  it  corresponds  with 
the  Scotch  ideal  of  biding  one's  time, 
or  getting  fully  ready  to  deliver  a  crush- 
ing blow.  The  surgeon  who  refuses  lc» 
operate  in  an  early  stage  of  the  disease, 
fearing  for  his  own  reputation,  really 
neglects  to  operate.  The  w.^yfarer  who 
does  not  help  his  neighbor  in  trouble, 
for  fear  of  spoiling  his  clothes,  or  even 
of  his  life,  is  neglecting  his  duty,  and  hio 
philosophy  is  contemptible.  The  beat 
spirit  in  every  man  acclaims  him  only 
as  ideal  who  does  things,  at  whatever 
sacrifice. 

[151 


i 


ill! 


i  !! 


I  i 


'"-^ismm^wmrsf^Sim 


i\ 


^iWAitM   A^r 


Sl^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

One  winter  the  leading  exponents  of 
a  sect  for  which  I  have  the  highest  re- 
spect, and  among  whom  I  number  some 
of  my   best  friends   with   the  highest 
ideals,  adopted  and  imported  for  their 
instruction  in  the  way  of  life  a  be  ok 
issued  by  their  church  for  the  guid- 
ance of  its  members.    Not  to  drink, 
smoke,  dance,  play  cards,  go  to  the 
theater,  work  on  Sundays,  swear,  and 
other  indulgences  and  occupations  were 
scheduled  and  "indexed,"  as  were  many 
sms  of   immorality  which  go   without 
saymg  and  would  have  been  just  as  well 
omitted.    Taboos  were  laid  on  certain 
forms  of  art  which  appeal  to  many,  on 
entertainments   which   many   advocate 
as   being   especially   regenerative,    and 
on   forms  of  clothing   which   in   some 
countries    are   positively    national.    It 
so  happened  that  a  most  ardent  young 
medical  man  and  proud  adherent  of  a 
noted    Scotch  clan    was  spending  the 
winter  with  me  at  his  own  expense,  for 
no  other  reason  than  to  try  and  realize 
his  own  ideal  of  the  way  of  life,  and  had 
brought  with  him  the  special  garments 
It  was  his  proud  distinction  to  be  allowed 
[16] 


i 
,  f  II 


.n 


I  v.- 


.r>- 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

to  wear.  As  he  had  arrived  in  the  late 
fall,  he  had  not  yet  found  the  climate 
here  specially  adapted  to  bare  knees, 
but  all  the  same  he  was  looking  forward 
to  displaying  these  garments  to  honor 
some  special  occasion.  I  can  still  re- 
member his  face  when  I  pointed  out 
that  they  were  included  in  this  Index 
Expurgatorius. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  to  make 
every  seventh  day  one  of  rest,  and  to 
call  that  day  the  one  now  almost  uni- 
versally agreed  upon,  and  to  insist  upon 
its  observance,  now  that  it  has  been 
scientifically  and  philosophically  demon- 
strated as  advisable,  is  at  least  more  or 
less  ideal  and  not  calculated  to  "stir  up 
evil."    But  the  problem  as  to  which  is 
the  day  we  must  not  do  things  has  been 
one  of  our  worst  troubles.     There  came 
into  our  harbor  a  teacher  who  insisted 
that  the  day  before  was  a  better  day, 
the  real  and  only  ideal  day,  and  its 
observance,  instead  of  oar  chosen  day, 
essential  to  the  way  of  life.    A  very 
few  left  their  old  church  and  followed 
him.    They    ostentatiously    went    out 
fishing  while  their  former  comrades 
[17] 


0 


tw^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

way,"  stai  studied  and  followed 
the  precepts  of  the  expurgatory  book. 
I  can  still  see  being  thrown  from  ihe 
church  on  Monday  the  firewood  which 
had  been  carefully  cut  on  Sunday  and 
brought  freely  for  the  humble  ministry 
of   fuel.     My   Scotch    friend  had  left 
the  Coast,  but  here  at  least  he  stands 
avenged.    Many  beUeve  that  even  dogs 
are  affected  by  ridicule,  and  certainly 
nothmg  can  be  more  harmful  to  any 
human  cause  than  that  it  should  be 
obviously  ridiculous. 

The  Beauty  of  the  Open  Mind 

The  recognition  of  this  is  of  primal 
importance  in  these  days  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  kingdom  of  God.     Gentleness 
now  IS  needed,  not  so  much  of  action, 
for  that  is  forced  upon  us,  but  gentle- 
ness—gentle manliness  — of  thought. 
Self-assertiveness   is  one   of   the  most 
repellent  attributes  of  any  man.    No 
great  man  can  be  so  or  he  is  not  great. 
Fancy  Lord  Lister  sneering  at  and  de- 
nouncing even  those  whose  "old  ways" 
his  immortal  discovery  was  to  revolu- 
[18] 


■I 


f 


!   i 


'i 


I 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

tionize.      On    the    contrary    they    de- 
nounced   the   way   of    the   man    who 
conferred  one  of  the  greatest  blessings 
mankind  has   ever  received.     Harvey 
gave  mankind  the  inestimable  boon  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  but  the  old  school  of  his  day  only 
accepted  it  practically  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet.    Jenner  and  Pasteur  saved 
millions  of  Uves  through  their  patient 
and  masterful   work.    The  old  school 
abused  them,  and  still,  in  spite  of  facts, 
the  shallow  denounce  them. 

It  has   been   the  same   with   every 
advance  which  can  be  named  which  has 
helped  to  revolutionize  human  knowl- 
edge  and   advantage   human    life.    It 
seems  it  must  be  so.    But  at  least  let 
us  not  do  this  ignorantly,  defeating  our 
own    ends    and    debarring    men    from 
following  the  Christ  avowedly,  because 
of  our    intellectual  conceit  or  overslept 
conservatism.    Science  suggests  to  us 
now  that   there  is  no  such   thing   as 
matter,  all  is  a  form  of  motion   and 
we  merely  the  expression  of  perpetual 
vortices  of  whirling  motion.      Can  we 
not  be   content  with  merely   judging 
[1»J 


n 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


ourselves    and     criticizing     our     own 
methods  ? 

The  Wholesome  School  op 
Experience 

Experience  would  teach  me  that  as 
men  grow  older  the  strong  bias  of  youth- 
ful days,  like  the  rills  in  thawing  snow, 
tends  to  become  obliterated,  and  the 
refreshing  streams  do  run  at  last  into 
larger  and   more   beneficent   channels. 
Ihis,  to  us  medical  men,  is  not  a  symp- 
tona  of  defective  processes  in  the  machine 
which  makes  thought  possible.    Mean- 
while we  have  broadened  the  meaning  of 
the  word  "monomania"  to  include  and 
qualify  as  needing  control   the  whole 
genus  of  those  whose  misfortune  it  is  to 
arrogate  to  themselves  intellectually  that 
which  they  most  certainly  do  not  possess, 
liocperience  was  suggested  by  the  great 
Master  as  the  one  school  in  which  all  can 
learn  whether  his  teachings  as  to  "the 
way  •'  were  of  God  or  man.    This  school 
for  doing  things  may  cost  us  dear,  but 
It  has  the  merits  of  no  undeserved  in- 
vectives, and  even  if  we  do  make  failures 
m  our  attempts,  even  if  we  do  uninten- 
I20J 


w 


rp 


13 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

tionally  select  wrong  methods,  such 
wanderings  as  those  of  Kim  and  his 
lama  ended  in  the  haven  where  they 
would  be  because  they  kept  on,  and 
Tyl  and  Mytil  found  the  Blue  Bird  by 
much  doing.  Shall  we  not  concede  at 
least  that  this  may  be  equally  as  true 
of  any  man's  groping,  even  if  his 
methods  are  not  ours? 

I  am  now  speaking  to  those  who  are 
m  earnest  about  life.    Eternity  is  not 
long  enough  to  convince  the  blase  in- 
differentist  who  cares  nothing  for  life 
or  believes  that  neither  the  way  nor  the 
goal  exists  at  all.   It  seems  futile  to  spend 
time  arguing  about  ideals  with  those  in 
whom  physical  or  intellectual  wealth  has 
only  aroused  a  contempt  for  life  and  a 
chronic  condition  of  boredom.    Nor  does 
it  seem  more  profitable  to  expect  words 
to  alter  the  way  of  life  of  those  in  whom 
either  wealth  or  illiteracy  has  permitted 
an  unreasoning  bias  against  life  to  de- 
velop.   The  foolishness  of  mere   word 
preaching  can  only  save  the  few  anyhow. 
Dean  Hodges  is  not  the  only  authority 
who  has  put  on  record  that  he  is  a  fortu- 
nate man  who,  because  of  its  mystery, 
[21] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


sees  the  dignity  of  life,  and  he  quotes 
Mazzini  as  saying  that  a  man  has  learned 
nothing  unless  he  has  learned  to  wonder. 
Bishop  Brooks  says  the  outlook  into 
mystery  has  ever  a  stronger  intellectual 
influence  than  the  inspection  of  discov- 
ered facts. 

Certainly  if  entrance  to  het     i  de- 
pends on  an  intellectual  nttitude,  quite 
the  majority  will  be  left  out,  while  our 
colored  friends  in  the  Sou*h  will  probably 
be  far  more  generously  represented.     A 
mixture  of  Revelation  and  a  minstrel 
show  always  left  me  as  a  boy  with  the 
idea  of  heaven  as  a  place  especially 
adapted  for  pleasing  them,  as  a  loud 
noise  does  the  adherents  of  certain  sects. 
I  have  positively  heard  men  hide  what 
should  be  their  despair  at  this  fact  by 
quoting  the  Master  as  saying  that  we 
cannot  expect  the  wise  or  rich  in  God's 
gifts  to  be  largely  represented.    Such  a 
view  of  heaven  obviously  does  not  make 
it  very  attractive  to  young  manhood. 


'  '.\ 


f 

) 


^la^iS^ 


I 


III 

CUBBY-HOLING  RELIGION 

THHE  fear  that  Christ's  way  of  life 
-■■     involves  communism  and  socialism 
on  the  absolulely  equal  division  of  prop- 
erty basis  led  largely  to  the  boxing  off  of 
religion  from  every-day  life,  and  a  sort 
of  tacit  acknowledgment  has  arisen  that 
it  is  too  radical  a  thing  to  mix  with  ordi- 
nary business.    The  process  has  made 
it  such  an  er^feebled  and  unattractive 
plant  that  many  persons  now  think  it  an 
exotic  which  needs  a  glass  cover  and 
a  cubby  hole  all  to  itself,  otherwise  it 
would  perish.    The  Oriental  hyperbole 
was  perfectly  understood  in  Christ's  day. 
To  believe  that  he  insisted  on  men  hating 
their  parents  and  their  own  lives  is  a 
direct  contradiction  of  his  own  state- 
ments that  he  came  not  to  abolish  but 
to  fulfil  that  law,  which  includes  only 
[23] 


!i 


^ 


'fit  t\ 

THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

one  with  a  spt'(  ial  promise  attached  to 
it;  viz.,  that  we  must  honor  our  parents. 
It  would  be  positively  suicidal  for  a 
physician  in  the  arctic  not  to  have  two 
coats,  even  though  I  have  seen  children 
and  even  adults  without  what  one  could 
properly  call  one.  Christ  obviously 
leaves  us  freedom  to  use  common  sense, 
natural  sense,  sense  the  direct  gift  of 
the  Creator  of  the  brain,  in  dealing 
with  property  and  business.  We  know 
of  only  one  rich  man  whom  he  told 
to  give  away  what  was  ruining  his 
character. 

Raising  the  Moral  Level 

The  wisest  teachers  of  this  age  are  one 
with  the  Master  in  agreeing  that  no  wav 
is  too  expensive  to  attain  that  supreme, 
prize  of  life,  character.  Thus  some  con- 
sider that  the  man  who  comers  food- 
stuff, cuts  down  his  workmen  to  the  last 
penny,  squeezes  the  fishermen  to  the 
lowest  price,  obtains  special  protection 
for  his  wares  at  the  consumer's  expense, 
can  yet  be  a  Christian  if  he  believes 
in  the  miraculous  birth  of  Christ,  his 
resurrection,  etc.,  and  sings  hymns  and 

[24] 


=74>iS/ 


'     ^^'^: 


^i^\ 


J.  ir^z  t  ft 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

prays  prayers.     We  simply  cannot  con- 
ceive God  as  valuing  clothes  and  atti- 
tudes and  ceremonies  as  he  do«>s  life. 
We  must  remember  that  unless  our  fol- 
lowing  of  ••  the  way  "  leads  us  to  raise 
our  entire  standard  of  business  morality, 
to  a  common-sense  Judge  we  are  not  so 
good  as  other  heathen  who  more  nearly 
live  up  to  their  high  moral  code.     We 
expect  to  answer  before  a  tribunal  char- 
acterized by  sanity  and  righteousness, 
before  a  Judge  whom  Scripture  suggests 
is  also  gifted  with  a  sense  of  humor. 

WTiy  should  not  every  judge,  as  one 
has  shown  us  a  judge  can  do,  make  it 
the  aim  and  object  of  his  professional 
work  to  cure  the  criminal  ?   Why  should 
it  not  be  the  absorbing  interest  of  every 
medical  man  to  eliminate  liimself  hy  add- 
ing to  his  labors  "social  work"  which 
should  tend  more  and  more  to  eradicate 
disease?     Why    should    not    manufac- 
turers, as  some  do,  make  it  their  chief 
aim  to  dignify  and  reward  their  laborers; 
why  should  not  retailers  seek  to  do  for 
their  customers  as  they  would  be  done 
by?     Why  should  not  the  clergy  seek 
only  for  the  advance  of  God's  Kingdom, 
[25] 


tf 


■rA 


W^^^ 

^i^ 


SJ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE 

and  not  for  that  of  the  little  church 
which  they  call  theirs  ?  Judge  Lindsey, 
Parson  Worcester,  Doctor  Cabot,  the 
National  Cash  Register  Company,  Lever 
Brothers  are  notable  examples  of  what 
such  a  spirit  can  do  to  help  on  righteous- 
ness, joy,  and  peace. 

Educators  are  certainly  trying  more 
to-day  to  teach  their  pupils  to  select 
and  prepare  for  lives  where  they  can 
contribute  most  to  the  common  good. 
Property  owners  to-day  see  that  it  pays, 
even  in  a  mundane  sense,  to  study  their 
tenants'  interests.     Statesmen  are  more 
and   more  exhibiting  the  same  spirit, 
and   the   voters   are   ever   increasingly 
demanding  it.     vJhrist  would  have  a  far 
better  chance  of  occupying  the  White 
House  to-day  than   ever  he    had    for 
Herod's  throne.    The  fact  is  we  know 
that  Christ's  way  is  the  way  for  business, 
for  we  have  learned  that  lasting  joy  and 
worth-while    success    are    only    to    be 
measured  by  what  we  give,  and  not  what 
we  get.     Only  the  shallow  can  afiFord  to 
laugh  at  Christ's  teaching  that  it  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.     Only 
those  who  for  some  reason  are  behind 
[261 


I 


^^f/^- 


An  Avoided  Subject 

The  divorce  of  our  religion  from  our 
life  has  become  so  accepted  that  we 
hardly  notice  it.  For  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness man  or  college  student  to  talk  about 
his  relation  to  things  eternal  under  every- 
day circumstances  is  entirely  abnormal, 
however  convinced  we  may  be  that  we 
[27] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY  ^' 

the  times  in  knowledge  can  aflFord  to-day 
to  laugh  at  the  old  alchemist  who  said 
that  precious  stones  can  be  made  out  of 
dirt  and  gold  o.<.  of  apparently  ignoble 
elements. 

To  many,  ,m,oh  mode  n  business  does 
seem  inconsib.cuc  v.i^h  Christ's  way  of 
life;  one  could  not  fancy  him  gambling 
in  stocks  or  squeezing  unearned  incre- 
ment out  of  land  grabbing.     I  remarked 
to  one  friend  last  year  who  was  pointing 
out  to  me  a  section  of  land  out  of  which 
he  had  just  mad(  a  big  "scoop,"  "It 
seems  hard  on  the    newcomers."    He 
looked  puzzled,  and  then  said,  "That's 
business.     You    can't    expect    to    mix 
religion  and  business"— as  if  they  were 
oil  and  water. 


V» 


.  >.^   ::S^  Jr^f -^  1^-?  ^^^^1 


^mz^  ~. 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


f;  I 


are  Christians.  It  has  almost  become 
immoral.  We  speak  of  it  with  bated 
breaths  as  of  something  outside  our  lives, 
instead  of  it  being  the  very  breath  of  our 
life.  Others  again  consider  it  so  inti- 
mate to  their  personality  that  they  do 
not  wish  to  have  to  defend  it,  thinking 
partly  that  it  must  be  intuitive  and 
carries  no  credentials  to  convince  the 
ordinary  mind,  and  partly  deterred  by 
the  exhibitions  of  that  cheap  emotion- 
alism which  so  readily  lends  itself  to 
parody;  and  anyway  they  do  not  wish 
to  talk  about  it  as  being  too  sacred  for 
every-day  life. 

This  divorce  is  not  recent;  it  dates 
back  to  childhood  and  training.  Thus 
it  is  probably  right  to  say  grace  before 
meals,  but  people  would  look  askance 
if  you  began  to  speak  naturally  about 
Jesus  Christ  as  if  he  were  sitting  at  the 
table.  Dinner  of  course  is  a  vital  part 
of  your  daily  life.  Yet  the  fact  that  the 
religion  of  the  churches  seems  to  be 
divorced  from  every-day  life  is  certainly 
not  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  any 
diminution  of  interest  in  or  reverence 
for  the  person  of  Christ. 

[281 


©^ 


^mMm^^^i^ 


1'^ 


1 1 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

The  absurdity  of  cubby-holing  any 
section  of  life  cannot  be  better  illus- 
trated than  in  the  one  which  unfortu- 
nately affects  the  majority  of  men  in 
their  most  impressionable  and  formative 
period  of  lif  . 

Everyone  knows  that  if  six  chance 
men  were  to  be  thrown  together  who 
claimed  that  they  were  Christians,  and 
if  some  one  were  to  ask  them  whether 
a  Christian  man  were  to  play  cards  — 
say  draw  poker  — there  would  be  a 
difference  of  opinion.  I  have  heard  two 
clergymen  argue  that  whist  and  bridge 
were  all  right  for  Christians,  whereas 
euchre,  poker,  and  forty-five  were  non- 
Christian.  One  might  have  been  back 
in  Judea  listening  to  a  discussion  among 
the  Phar  <  about  phylacteries.  If 
Jesus  had  id  in,  wouldn't  he  have 

said,  "Wha  lever  are  you  fighting  about 
in  this  cubby-hole,  while  all  the  rest  of 
the  world  outside  is  busy  Hving?  " 

Varying  judgments 

Some  Christian  leaders  and  teachers 
to-day  are  thoroughly  opposed  to  the 
[29] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

theater;  others  just  as  strongly  biased 
in    its    favor.    Some    denounce    horse 
racing;   others  men  racing;    still  others 
physical  competitions  to  which  they  are 
not  inclined,  such  as  the  noble  art  of  self- 
defense.     In  the  end  one  would  expect 
to  see  published  a  list  of  games  and  pas- 
times   especially    designed    for    young 
Christians;  only  when  written  down  in 
black   and   white   it    looks    ridiculous. 
Common  sense  realizes  that  in  play  as 
well  as  in  work  a  man  cannot  qualify 
as  a  Christ  follower  by  the  games  he 
doesn't  play.     It  results  in  the  stigma- 
tizing   of    drinking    alcohol,    smoking 
opium  or  tobacco,  taking  unearned  in- 
crement in  the  one  particular  way  of 
getting  it  to  which  is  given  the  name 
of  betting  or  gambling. 

I  have  now  an  old  fisherman  dying 
of  cancer.  He  can  neither  read  nor 
write,  but  lying  in  bed  he  contributes 
to  life  the  service  which  is  now  all  he  is 
capable  of  rendering  —  by  displaying  a 
patient  spirit  and  a  happy  and  contented 
mind,  now  that  we  have  allowed  him 
his  pipe.  We  get  as  much  benefit  out 
of  the  tobacco  as  he  does.  Often  when 
[30] 


' 

f 


■if 


I  ^'1 


^ 


I 


ii  \l 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

I  am  tired  out  I  find  I  can  get  mental 
rest  better  by  playing  a  game  of  cribbage 
than  m  any  other  way.  To  some  who 
regard  this  as  a  game  for  old  ladies 
exclusively  the  above  remark  will  sound 
almost  axiomatic. 

We  realize  the  dangers  of  all  cumula- 
tive drugs;   so  we  do  those  of  even  too 
much  bread  and  butter.     I  never  forget 
a  poor  patient  who  choked  himself  by 
pushing   too   much  bread    and    butter 
down    his    throat.     We    recognize    the 
dangers  of  fog  and  ice,  of  boats  and 
guns,  of  bad  air  and  tight  clothes,  of 
gomg  upstairs  and  coming  down  again. 
We  realize  the  serious  dangers  of  gam- 
bling, card  playing,  prize  fighting,  loaf- 
ing, of  too  much  money,  and  of  too  little 
of  emotional  excitement,  of  praying,  of 
singing,  of  asceticism,  of  thinking  of  self 
too  much  from  a  worldly  religious  point 
of  view,  of  worldliness  and  unworldli- 
ness,  and  of  being  in  the  world  at  all, 
such  as  the  "unco  guid"  would   weep 
over.    I  have  known  a  man  thank  God 
for  carrying  the  latest  addition  to  his 
large  family  off  to  heaven  and  far  from 
the  temptations  of  this  wicked  world. 
I31J 


!     I 


^i^i^^K, 


^mst^' 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


No  need  to  add  here  to  the  list  of  dan- 
gers. SuflSce  it  to  say  that  Christ 
labeled  and  cubby-holed  none  of  them; 
it  has  remained  for  the  arrogance  of  man 
to  affix  the  labels.  I  believe  Christ  did 
label  hypocrisy.  Christ's  way  permits 
one  to  be  a  life-long  total  abstainer.  He 
permits  me  to  condemn  alcohol  as  a 
beverage,  but  not  the  man  who  takes 
it.     He  stands  or  falls  to  God  alone. 


■ 


J  ^  The  Sentences  that  are  Saving 

THE  World 

Our  lakes  and  fjords  here  in  spring, 
after  the  snows  have  melted,  are  per- 
fectly clear,  life-giving  reservoirs;  all 
the  useless  matter  sinks  to  the  bottom. 
But  as  soon  as  man  comes  along  and 
mixes  up  these  God-given  supplies  for 
cleansing  and  refreshing  human  life  they 
become  useless  for  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  intended  and  often  harmful. 
I  believe  that  if  the  greatest  minds  in 
the  best  equipped  laboratories  of  earth, 
amidst  the  man-made  fog  which  now 
obscures  "the  way,"  would  search  for 
Christ's  way  just  as  now  they  search  for 
[321 


It 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

siderium  or  coronium  or  one  of  the  new 
elements  known  to  exist  in  the  heavens 
but  not  yet  found  on  earth,  all  they 
would  have  left  to  offer  their  students 
would  be  a  guide-book  of  a  few  sentences. 
But  it  vould  be  an  appeal  to  the  com- 
mon sense  of  all  time. 

The  pages  of  history  are  the  sign 
manual  of  the  advance  of  Christ's  King- 
dom, and  his  teaching  will  always  be 
found  to  answer  to  the  latest  tests  of 
the  ages.  To  win  out  we  must  want 
to  win.  We  must  exercise  choice,  and 
therefore  "the  way"  should  be  made 
especially  attractive,  and  it  can  only 
be  that  to  real  manhood  if  it  is  part  and 
parcel  of  everything  else.  So  long  as  it 
is  in  a  separate  box  labeled  "  Religion  " 
it  is  obvious  that  a  very  small  percent- 
age of  the  desirable  active  element  will 
consciously  select  it  as  their  department. 

The  need  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  "back 
to  the  land  "  movement  and  a  remorse- 
less tearing  up  of  the  weeds  of  supersti- 
tion, tradition,  fanaticism,  conservatism, 
and  of  well-meaning  mental  instabil- 
ity, till  once  again  it  is  just  God's 
own  soil  to  sweeten  and  nourish  and 
[33] 


ms'-^<t^7mr 


"^Ms"^-^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


cause  the  human  soul  to  fructify,  instead 
of  a  thorn-choked  wilderness  with  a  peren- 
nial crop  of  sanctimonious  selfishness. 

The  best  revival  we  ever  saw  here  was 
when  the  tail  end  of  a  cyclone  actually 
took  the  building,  which  the  folk  had 
mistaken  for  God's  church,  and  whisked 
it,  seats,  floor,  and  all,  right  into  the 
middle  of  the  harbor.  All  hands  found 
refreshing  supplies  of  God's  grace  in  the 
free  labor  cheerfully  given  and  labori- 
ously served  for  no  cash  return,  and  in 
the  new  house  of  their  public  worship, 
because  of  the  personal  labor  every  board 
and  timber  represented  to  them.  Poor 
people  who  build  their  own  little  homes 
love  them  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
occupiers  of  even  model  tenements  or 
modern  palaces.  Enduring  love  is  the 
true  test  of  real  value.  Even  medicine 
and  cold  still  find  love  and  gratitude 
when  they  are  understood. 

The  actual  value  of  a  diamond  ring 
for  your  nose  or  ear,  or  any  other  portion 
of  your  anatomy,  with  the  anxiety  and 
expense  of  properly  protecting  it,  is  prob- 
lematical and  deferred,  except  so  far  as 
it  carries  cherished  memories  or  poten- 
[341 


'J 

h 


]  i 


W 

THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

tial  energy.  Among  the  gold  medals, 
nobly  earned,  which  have  proved  of  most 
value  to  mankind  was  the  large  one 
given  to  General  Gordon,  and  its  value 
was  in  the  fact  that  a  man  could  be 
found  who,  because  he  was  a  follower 
of  Christ,  when  the  poor  Chinese  were 
starving  by  thousands,  was  a  life  citizen 
of  the  world  enough  to  scrape  off  the 
inscription  and  send  it  to  the  famine 
fund.  That  kind  of  religion  is  always 
modern.  It  is  what  men  think  now 
Christ  would  have  done.  It  is  what 
they  would  like  to  have  done.  It  is  not 
the  result  of  a  temporary  supreme  effort 
which  says  "I  will  be  religious  today." 
It  is  the  natural  fruit  of  the  land,  not 
the  spasmodic  effort  of  a  whilom  hot-bed. 

The  Cure  for  Lukewarmness 

If  you  want  to  save  a  man  from  temp- 
tation, self,  and  despair,  find  him  some 
work  to  do.  To  show  the  world  that 
Christ  needs  a  "Labor  Party,"  and  then 
to  show  the  members  how  to  work,  and 
act  as  whip  for  the  party  is  the  rdle 
which  the  church  must  play  if  it  is 
[3fi] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

not  to  atrophy  out  of  existence.  Luke- 
warmness  is  becoming  more  and  more 
incompatible  with  manhood's  digestion, 
and  the  church  which  does  not  lay 
supreme  emphasis  on  work  must  in- 
evitably, in  the  expressive  language  of 
Scripture,  be  "Vomited  out  of  the 
mouth." 

Two  years  ago  I  was  discussing  with 
a  young  university  graduate  of  con- 
siderable wealth  and  no  ties  this  very 
question  —  where  he  could  best  put 
in  his  life.  His  gifts  were  great,  but 
especially  strong  along  a  certain  line. 
We  longed  for  his  help  here,  but  we 
decider  ^hat  he  had  a  larger  field  for 
his  talents  in  big  cities. 

Here  again  I  believe  most  intensely  in 
the  need  of  that  arm  of  contact  with 
the  live  Rail,  which  we  call  "prayer." 
I  have  never  seen  real  prayer  go  un- 
answered, and  I  have  seen  it  remove 
mountains.  Yet  it  was  made  in  secret 
to  the  Father  who  seeth  in  secret. 

The  need  for  all  which  any  man  has 
to    give    is    a    corollary   also    of    the 
axiom  that  life  is  given  us  for  a  pur- 
pose, and  this  surely  is  high  enough  to 
[36] 


iW 


'J 


V, 


I 


"I 


'/  i 


1l 

I 

f 

If! 


II 


I' 


»a 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

appeal  to  anyone.      Still  in  the  world 
there   is   merciless    competition.      Still 
men,  anxious  to  work,  starve  for  the 
need   of   it,    while   endless    work   goes 
undone.     God    knows    there   exists    a 
need  for  really  up-to-date  doctors  and 
lawyers  with  Christ's  spirit,  to  heal  and 
advise  and  save,  if  they  will  only  go 
where  there  is  need  and  not  necessarily 
a  cash  return.    The  giving  and  not  the 
getting  decides  the  location;  though  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  any  place  where  a 
man's  lot  is  thrown  is  not  needy  enough, 
if  he  will  only  find  out  that  need  and  try 
to  meet  it.    There  are  festering,  over- 
crowded slums,  and  lands  are  lying  idle 
wliile  the  world  is  in  need  of  their  pos- 
sible products.    The  fear  of  the  wolf  of 
hunger  still  overshadows  the  old  age  of 
countless  of  our  fellowmen  and  even- 
tually  drags   them  down   to  a  miser- 
able death.     Vampires  living  on  vice 
and  frauds  living  on  ignorance  still  find 
plentiful  victims  who  might  be  saved. 

A  man  need  not  recognize  a  label,  but 

that  he  should  recognize  and  avow  his 

,  own  definite  decision  to  be  a  worker  is 

'  ii       essential  for  his  development  and  for 

[37] 

I V  ^■^i ^""/T-^  /  ,-9,-1- ^.-T^----  -pi/n n.r?^  ^T  -  -<  rr-\  ^"^ ■^■' 


tiif^w^ 


I 


I . 


,  I 


i  ; 


.   -7c  : 


.-^-,—7 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

his  full  usefulness  to  others  who  are 
following  the  same  "way."  Among  the 
many  university  students  who  each  year 
come  to  help  out  down  here  I  have 
never  yet  found  one  whom  the  whole 
lot  will  characterize  as  worth  while 
who  has  not  been  not  only  willing 
literally  to  go  into  the  drain  to  dig,  but 
spoiling  for  it  or  any  useful  work.  No 
man  who  appeals  to  manhood  has  false 
shame  about  avowing  such  a  purpose. 
The  term  "Christian"  was  never  in- 
tended to  be  a  final  judgment  on  a 
closed  career  —  only  to  characterize  the 
follower  of  the  way  of  life  of  the  Naza- 
rene  carpenter.  It  has  only  again  to 
become  synonymous  with  unselfish  aims 
and  solid  work,  and  no  longer  be  a  term 
for  intellectual  orthodoxy,  and  it  will 
attract  a  hundred  where  it  now  attracts 
one. 


[38] 


^1 


rv 


THE  DOCTOR  TO  THE  MINISTER 
A  DIALOGUE 

/^NE  Sunday  after  church  I  was 
^■^  talking  to  ray  friend  the  minister. 
"Did  you  know  Jim  Mathew's  w^ife  had 
a  baby  last  night?  I  was  there  till  day- 
light. She  hasn't  a  solitary  thing  in 
the  house;  not  a  rag  for  the  baby,  and 
only  a  mouthful  of  dry  flour  for  herself. 
She  only  got  through  at  all  owing  to 
the  hospital  feeding  her  these  last  two 
months."  She  lived  only  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the  little 
church,  and  we  are  a  small  village. 

"  No, "  he  replied ;  ' '  the  Orange  Lodge 
looks  after  its  members,  and  Jim's  an 
Orangeman." 

"That  may  be  true,  but  the  whole 
family  is  starving,  and  your  people  are 
doing  nothing  except  to  talk  about  feed- 
[39] 


i§ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    W 

ing  the  hungry.  Don't  you  recognize 
a  need  for  definite  organization  of  Christ 
followers  just  for  this  piupose  and  others 
similar  to  it?  " 

"Yes,"  he  replied;  "but  on  a  scattered 
coast  like  this  it  is  all  a  man  can  do  to 
get  around  and  do  his  preaching/* 

"Preaching  is  only  a  way  to  an  end. 
However,  it  is  a  good  thing  you've  got 
in  that  boy's  club,"  I  replied.  "It  is 
the  first  thing  which  ever  came  to  this 
harbor  that  really  reached  the  boys. 
If  I  want  to  know  about  any  lad  in 
trouble,  that  good  fellow  Jones  can 
always  tell  me;  the  boys  just  love  him." 

"Oh,  our  church  hasn't  anything  to 
do  with  the  club.  You  see,  they  keep 
it  open  prayer-meeting  nights,  and  the 
older  members  don't  believe  in  it." 

"But  you  do  yourself,  surely?" 

"Of  course.  But  you  know.  Doctor, 
one  has  to  make  concessions,  and  some 
people  are  so  bigoted.  These  are  our 
very  best  people  too,  in  every  other  way. 
But  they  are  terribly  afraid  of  anything 
new." 

"What  kind  of  people  are  bigoted?" 
I  answered.    "Are  they  Christians?" 
(401 


I 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


He  smiled  and  looked,  as  I  know 
he  was,  sorely  troubled.  He  had  been 
taught  to  cubby-hole  religion  and  was 
just  b^inning  to  wake  up  to  the  evil 
and  the  waste  of  it;  and  yet  he  had  an 
honest  fear  that  God  needed  convention 
more  than  conmion  sense. 

So  I  went  on,  "You  just  tell  the  next 
minister  when  you  go,  to  be  on  the  look- 
out for  a  cross  and  crown  of  thorns, 
which  I  know  he'll  get,  if  only  he  will  be 
brave  enough  and  have  faith  enough  to 
stand  for  some  of  these  things  in  which 
your  older  members  do  not  believe.  He 
must  at  first  expect  to  lose  on  a  count 
of  heads.  But  you  see  religious  people 
will  have  to  answer  to  a  rational  tribunal. 
Spontaneous  gi  ^  may  be  all  right  and 
very  enjoyable,  but  it  isn't  meeting  the 
problem.  If  we  are  to  try  and  act  as 
Christians  in  relation  to  this  problem 
of  poverty,  we  must  give  it  as  much 
thought  and  effort,  organized  and  com- 
bined, as  we  possibly  can  —  in  fact  as 
if  we  were  arranging  for  some  one  we 
really  cared  about,  like  our  wife,  or  our 
children,  or  shall  we  say  ourselves? 
What  do  we  expect  when  we  have  to 
[41] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

acknowledge  to  a  righteous  Judge  that 
whatever  we  did,  you  as  a  clergyman 
and  I  as  a  doctor,  or  anyone  else  in  his 
special  occupation,  was  most  unbusiness- 
like and  a  failure?  The  hungry  were 
not  fed,  and  we  were.  The  young  men 
and  women  did  go  wrong  in  spite  of  us. 
We  had  no  time  to  devote  to  trying  to 
train  their  tastes,  to  occupy  their  waste 
time,  or  develop  their  latent  talents;  to 
teach  them  industries  to  add  to  their 
earning  capacities;  to  improve  their 
sanitary  conditions;  to  teach  them  the 
laws  of  health  and  the  values  of  food; 
though  some  of  these  things  were  all 
some  of  us  had  to  give  the  world. 

"What  do  you  think  Christ  would 
be  doing  if  he  came  here  and  saw  folk 
suffering  the  curse  of  the  damned  from 
scurvy,  just  from  want  of  knowing  how 
to  lay  out  the  value  of  their  fish?  If  he 
saw  them  with  beri-beri  because  they 
couldn't  cook  decently,  and  wouldn't 
use  the  whole  meal  flour  and  beans  to 
prevent  it;  and  miserable  children, 
crooked  legged  and  narrow  chested, 
because  one  cannot  feed  cows  in  this 
country  unless  one  is  well  off  —  can't 
[421 


>Vf 


':yC^<^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


you  see  him  giving  cooking  lessons? 
Can't  you  see  him  smashing  window 
panes  to  let  in  fresh  air  to  consumptive 
houses,  so  as  to  let  people  know  by 
experience  what  can  save  them?  Can't 
you  see  him  holding  night  schools  to 
teach  men  to  manage  better  and  econo- 
mize such  gifts  as  he  has  given  them? 
I  can  see  him  night  after  night  saying  to 
a  class  of  our  old  graybeards,  'Three 
times  three  is  nine;  two  times  four  is 
eight,'  and  chalking  it  up  on  the  wall 
till  poor  old  Jim  could  read  his  count  k  id 
so  save  a  few  cents  here  and  there  to 
have  *a  s'prise  tin  o'  milk  in  t'  locker, 
to  have  it  to  give  to  t'  missis  when  dere 
comes  a  pinch.* 

"I  see  him  starting  schemes  to  sell 
necessities  cheaper;  fighting  to  find 
markets  for  better  prices  for  our  staple 
products.  I  see  him  training  voters  or 
serving  in  the  assembly;  I  see  him  a 
statesman  negotiating  treaties.  I  see 
him  helping  fellows  to  go  to  college, 
to  go  to  technical  schools.  If  you  had 
lived  in  Nazareth,  Parson,  and  seen 
'Carpentry  done  here'  on  a  sign  over  a 
house,  and  if  you  knew  that  Jesus  and 
[43] 


M 


I 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


Joseph  were  the  men  who  were  going 
to  take  on  your  job,  would  you  expect 
the  doors  to  jam  and  the  windows  to 
stick?  If  a  carpenter  did  a  shoddy 
piece  of  work  for  me  I  should  strongly 
suspect  his  Christianity,  and  all  his 
professions  and  confessions  of  faith 
wouldn't  induce  me  to  give  him  another 
job." 

"But  how  can  a  church  do  all  those 
things?" 

"A  church?  What  is  a  church  but 
a  body  of  live  men  and  women,  united 
so  as  better  to  relive  Christ's  life?  It 
must  surely  keep  trying  to  do  these 
things,  and  do  them  in  Christ's  way,  or 
it  isn't  a  Christian  church  at  any 
rate." 

"But,  Doctor,  it's  impossible  for  a 
minister  to  have  time  to  instruct  in  all 
those  things.  Isn't  it  his  business  to  be 
preaching  the  Gospel?  " 

"My  dear  Parson,  do  you  honestly 
think  you  have  given  us  one  single  piece 
of  information  since  you  came  on  this 
shore  that  we  did  not  know  already? 
Don't  you  think  that  before  you  go  into 
the  pulpit  we  know  by  the  cut  of  your 
44] 


II 


> 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


clothing,  even  if  we  don't  know  your 
name,  the  pith  of  what  you  are  going 
to  say?  Words  are  only  man-made  ways 
to  convey  ideas,  and  pretty  poorly  they 
often  enough  express  them,  especially 
if  they  are  addressed  to  those  who 
cannot  speak  the  particular  language  or 
cannot  read  or  write  like  some  of  your 
folk  here.  Everyone  understands  lives, 
and  like  experience  they  are  the  most 
reliable  teachers  —  read  of  all  men,  too. 
Doesn't  it  seem  to  you  that  the  deeper 
a  man's  experience  is,  the  less  ready  he 
is  to  try  and  be  an  oracle  on  the  one 
subject  which  your  very  office  binds 
you  to  claim  to  be  an  authority? 

"Will  your  successor,  as  did  your 
predecessor,  confine  all  his  God-given 
gifts  to  telling  us  the  same  story,  the 
same  maxims,  and  the  same  illustrations 
which  we  have  heard  a  hundred  times? 
When  our  minds  awaken,  and  the  prog- 
ress which  has  opened  the  minds  of 
laboring  men  in  other  places  awakens 
our  intelligence  as  well,  and  we  come  to 
weigh  the  church's  work  in  the  balance 
of  our  common  sense,  won't  you.  Parson, 
have  any  fear  of  the  decision  of  a  jury 

[45] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


of,  say,  the  best  twelve  good  and  true 
men  in  our  harbor?  What  will  the  gre«t 
all-knowLQg  Judge  say?  'What  did 
you  do  to  elevate  the  intelligence  of  my 
young  men?'  'I  talked  to  them  and 
asked  you  to  do  the  rest.'  'Did  you 
do  nothing  more?'  'Nothing.'  'What 
did  you  do  to  improve  the  condition  of 
the  poor?'  *I  told  the  congregation 
to  feed  and  clothe  them  and  gave  away 
all  I  had.'  'Did  you  do  nothing 
more?'  'Nothing.  I  hadn't  time.' 
'What  did  you  do  for  the  health  and 
homes  and  economics  of  my  people?' 
*I  talked  to  them  and  told  them  to 
obey  and  not  complain.'  'Did  you 
do  nothing  more,  nothing  to  improve 
them?'  'Nothing.  I  had  no  time.' 
'Did  you  use  all  the  common  sense 
with  which  I  endowed  you  to  educate, 
uplift,  prevent  suffering  from  reaching 
my  people,  with  the  same  intelligent 
interest  you  showed  in  your  own 
wife,  in  your  own  boys,  in  yourself? 
Are  you  satisfied  with  your  method 
of  advertising  "the  way"?  Was  your 
love  as  intelligent  as  you  could  make 
it?* 

[46] 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


"What  can  you  answer?  I  am  not 
for  a  moment  trying  to  lay  down  what 
such  a  Judge  will  or  will  not  say  about 
your  sermons,  preachings,  and  prayer 
meetings;  but  what  would  you  say?" 


THE  MINISTER  TO  THE  DOCTOR 
ANOTHER  DIALOGUE 


IT  was  his  turn  now  and  he  began  m 
good  earnest.  "Doctor,  don't  you 
think  we  ought  to  be  insisting  that  Jesus 
was  the  Son  of  God?" 

"I'd  answer  that.  Parson,  by  saying 
that  I  certainly  do.  For  my  part,  I 
believe  he  was  whatever  he  claimed  to 
be,  even  if  men  differ  as  to  what  they 
conceive  that  really  was." 

"You  believe  he  was  different  from  us 
as  being  God?" 

"I  have  said  I  believe  he  was  what- 
ever he  claimed  to  be.  I  think  abso- 
lutely that  each  honest  man  must  have 
his  own  intellectual  interpretation  of 
what  he  did  claim,  and  that  depends  on 
the  gray  matter  of  the  brain  which  God 
has  given  any  particular  individual.  A 
1481 


:S^:^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

man's  life  and  actions  depend  on  the 
attitude  of  his  moral  and  spiritual 
being." 

"Isn't  a  clergyman  bound  to  preach 
his  own  interpretation?" 

"Well,  I'm  not  a  clergyman,  but  I 
should  say  he  was  bound  only  to  uplift 
men  to  follow  Christ.  He  is  neither 
bound  to  deny  his  own  convictions  or 
express  all  of  them.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  each  denomination  expects 
its  clergy  to  teach  what  it  teaches." 

"Would  you  have  a  minister  a  casuist 
or  a  sophist,  then,  by  telling  only  half 
that  he  thinks?" 

"I  know  men  in  every  profession  who 
never  say  in  public  what  their  intellect 
leads  them  to  say  to  chosen  friends, 
who  understand  them  just  as  Christ 
himself  did.  When  the  disciples,  whom 
Christ  wanted  especially  to  understand, 
as  they  were  to  be  his  teachers,  asked 
him  questions,  he  didn't  always  answer 
them.  There  is  a  man  next  door  to 
you  with,  in  all  probability,  a  fatal 
disease.  The  object  of  the  contact  of 
my  life  with  his  is  to  save  him,  not  to 
kill  him.  There  is  a  chance  that  any 
[49] 


,1 


hi!  I 

'iii 


!l 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


human  brain  may  misinterpret.  If  I 
went  to  him  and  told  him  that  he  was 
going  to  die,  knowing  him  as  I  do  and 
his  wife  as  I  do,  I  am  morally  certain  I 
should  kill  him.  If  you  went  and  said, 
'If  you  don't  believe  as  I  do,  you'll  he 
eternally  damned,'  it  would  be  simple 
murder;  and  if  I  thought  you  such  a 
criminal,  and  cared  one  jOt  for  Joe's 
little  children,  I'd  have  you  locked  up." 

"Then  you  don't  think  he  will  be 
eternally  damned?" 

"My  object,  like  the  Master's,  is  to 
try  and  save  his  life;  so  is  yours.  Not 
what  I  believe,  but  what  I  am  going  to 
tell  him  is  the  point.  I  have  seen  both 
practises  during  these  last  twenty  odd 
years,  and  I  am  sure  that  the  wiser  men 
very  often  withhold  what  they  think 
and  get  better  results  thereby.  Is  nc 
the  sole  cause  for  the  existence  of  o uf 
faith  to  attain  results  ?  Or  is  it  to  have 
a  pleasing  feeling  that  we  have  done 
our  duty?  Like  the  lady  who  sent  her 
loaves  of  bread  to  the  hungry  by  a 
liveried  footmau,  who  with  each  loaf 
told  tb^m  not  to  be  gluttonous  or  to 
sell  it  i_-  whisky.  Though  she  believed, 
[50] 


f 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

as  I  think  rightly,  that  total  abstinence 
is  far  the  best  way  in  life,  her  way  of 
telling  the  whole  of  what  she  thought 
did  not  benefit  either  the  cause  or  the 
people." 

"Then  you  think  Christ  wouldn't  tell 
all  he  thought  to  our  people?" 

"Look  here,  Parson.  A  year  or  two 
ago  I  gave  a  series  of  lantern  talks  to 
the  people  of  this  very  place.  The  first 
was  local  views.  It  was  greeted  enthusi- 
astically. Number  two  was  '  the  great- 
est wonders  of  the  world.*  It  was 
received  somewhat  skeptically  and  with 
much  less  interest.  The  third  was  on 
'starland,  or  astronomy  made  easy.' 
Most  of  the  audience  said  that  they  must 
have  been  working  extra  hard  that  day, 
they  all  felt  so  sleepy. 

"Our  folk  don'l  see  the  good  of  learn- 
ing to  swim.  The  water  is  too  cold 
and  it  takes  a  lot  of  time  and  trouble, 
and  they  have  an  instinctive  dread  of 
ever  getting  beyond  their  depth.  I've 
got  to  recognize  that  it  is  instinctive 
and  treat  it  seriously.  I'm  advising  you 
to  do  the  same.  Who  are  the  men  round 
here  who  are  laying  down  the  law  to 
151] 


iil 


others  most  loudly,  as  if  they  possessed 
infallible  information  concerning  the 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  the  future 
of  the  soul,  etc.?  You  know  they  aren't 
the  best  educated.  Why,  Parson,  do 
you  know  that  from  a  series  of  most 
carefully  collected  statistics  .  ver  a  large 
area  it  has  been  found  that,  with  the 
decline  of  the  r'.'Ai>al  camp  meeting 
tjT)e  of  religion,  there  has  been  a  pro- 
portional rise  in  the  morality  of  the 
people,  who  have  substituted  greater 
lignity,  a  more  'reasonable  service,' 
and  have  lost  none  of  the  zeal  for  Christ 
and  his  kingdom  when  they  got  rid  of 
the  emotionalism  which  was  stultifying 
them  and  their  view  of  religion? 

"  Hasn't  it  always  seemed  odd  to  you 
that  those  who  know  least  about  any- 
thing which  can  be  disproved  claim  to 
know  most  about  what  I  take  it,  from 
Christ  and  from  Paul,  our  brains  cannot 
conceive  ?  " 

"Then  you  don't  believe  in  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible  and  that  all  of 
it  is  true?" 

"When  two  men  give  different  ac- 
counts of  the  same  thing,  Parson,  I 

[52] 


m 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

believe  it  is  in  the  thing,  but  not  in  the 
accounts.  I  don't  credit  the  authors 
with  evil  motives,  only  with  being 
human  beings.  Don't  forget,  however, 
before  I  say  more,  that  what  I  now  say 
to  you  I  wouldn't  now  say  to  your  con- 
gregation if  I  stood  in  your  shoes, 
for  fear  of  being  misunderstood.  One 
should  not  destroy  unless  one  does 
it  only  in  order  to  rebuild  a  better 
structure. 

"For  instance,  I  personally  believe 
that  the  gospel  according  to  Matthew 
was  the  gospel  according  to  Matthew.  I 
believe  that  the  gospel  according  to  Luke 
was  the  gospel  according  to  Luke,  and 
that  the  gospel  according  to  Mark  was 
not  the  gospel  according  to  Mark." 
"Why  not?"  "Well,  because  it  flavors 
too  strongly  of  Peter." 

"You  mean  that  Peter  dictated  it, 
as  he  was  an  unlearned  and  ignorant 
man?" 

"Exactly.  I  believe  it  was  Peter's 
version  of  the  matter." 

"Don't  you  think,  then,  that  he  was 
inspired  differently  from  what  we  are 
today?" 

153] 


S-^, 


m^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 

"My  dear  Parson,  I  fear  he  did  pos- 
sess, as  a  matter  of  fact,  more  of  Christ's 
actual  nearness  than  you  or  I.  Though 
I  only  accept  that  because  of  the  record 
of  his  life  subsequently.  But  beyond 
that,  surely  our  lives  if  not  our  words 
are  capable  of  exactly  similar  inspiration. 
Would  you  believe  in  Christ  more  or 
follow  him  better  if  he  had  turned  that 
stone  into  bread  and  so  avoided  suffer- 
ing; had  used  superhuman  methods 
rather  than  human?" 

"No." 

"Then  why  would  you  want  to  judge 
any  man  as  no  true  follower  of  Jesus 
Christ  who  loves  him  all  the  better 
because  he  thinks  Christ  never  used  us 
men  as  machines  but  as  his  friends, 
allowing  us  to  be  men  that  he  might 
have  something  to  praise  us  for  and 
we  something  to  work  for  ?  You'll  have 
a  hard  battle.  Parson,  as  knowledge  goes 
on,  to  have  a  man  call  himself  a  Chris- 
tian at  all  if  you  try  to  make  men 
swallow  what  it  has  become  impossible 
for  their  stomachs  to  bear.  They  will 
be  forced  to  throw  it  up.  You  cannot 
thumbscrew  men  or  ostracize  men  or 


^IK> 


punish  men  anyhow  for  having  diflferent 
opinions.  That  is  the  trouble  with  my 
sick  man  now;  I  cannot  make  him  keep 
his  food  down." 

"If  I  were  to  go  out  and  preach  all 
that  here,  Doctor,  they  would  rise  in  a 
body  and  drive  me  out." 

"That  would  be  a  pity,  Parson.  Don't 
you  do  it.  But  I  am  going  down  now 
to  see  the  sick  man  in  your  house.  That 
excellent  loaf  we  have  just  been  eating 
makes  me  feel  fit  for  work  and  a  walk. 
But  if  I  w^re  to  go  there  and  give  it  to 
Joe  it  would  kill  him  inside  six  hours. 
Perhaps  I  may  give  !  to  him  six  weeks 
from  now  with  advantage." 

"But,  Doctor,  I  feel  I  ought  not  to 
hide  the  truth  as  I  see  it." 

"Well  then.  Parson,  you  shouldn't 
want  to  be  wiser  than  your  Master. 
When  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  intellect  of  the  Galilean  Jew  of  a.d. 
SI  wasn't  able  to  grasp  his  wisdom,  he 
gave  them  just  enough  of  the  water  of 
life  in  parables  not  to  choke  them  and 
just  enough  of  the  bread  of  life  not  to 
give  them  spiritual  indigestion.  'Ex- 
cept in  parables,  spake  he  not  at  all.' 
55] 


ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


He  explained  them  to  the  disciples  to 
whom  he  could  devote  plenty  of  time. 
Even  when  they  asked  him  direct  ques- 
tions he  didn't  always  answer  them. 
I  have  sometimes  thought  that  they 
showed  mighty  little  intelligence  to 
need  those  long  explanations,  and  after 
all  they  showed  very  little  real  appreci- 
ation of  his  teaching.  I  never  forget, 
when  I  think  of  inspiration,  James  and 
John  quarreling  as  to  which  of  them  was 
to  get  the  most  out  of  it,  just  after  they 
had  had  the  Last  Supper.  Yet  I  half 
liked  them  for  it,  because  it  made  them 
so  human  —  more  like  myself.  I  ad- 
mired them  more  when  I  believed  that 
they  minded  those  floggings  and  ston- 
ings  and  loneliness  and  misunderstand- 
ing more  because  of  it.  They  must 
have  lain  awake  in  bed  and  worried  just 
as  I  do,  instead  of  being  like  those 
ecclesiastical  e£Sgies  on  tombs,  or  as 
they  are  shown  in  'religious'  pictures, 
with  an  unnatural  enjoyment  of  arrows 
through  their  vital  organs. 

**Come  on,  Parson.     My  sick  man 
needs  me  and  you  have  some  one  who 
needs  you.    If  you  will  confess,  as  I 
[66] 


.dix. 


i 


ATTRACTIVE 

know  you  will,  that  you  don't  know  all 
about  the  right  treatment  yet,  and  will 
go  out  and  ask  Him  who  does  know  to 
make  you  wise  as  a  child  of  light  should 
be,  you  will  get  the  knowledge  necessary 
to  help  you  win  men  to  the  way  of  life; 
and  you  will  be  a  happier  man  if  you 
use  your  God-given  manhood  and  com- 
mon sense  to  give  or  withhold  rather 
than,  when  any  earnest  or  needy  man 
asks  you  how  he  can  win  out  in  the 
battle  with  sin,  feel  you  must  reply, 
'Say  Shibboleth,'  and  if  he  can't  say  it 
with  an  *h,'  slay  him  everlastingly,  even 
in  your  own  mind." 

To  sum  up.  One  of  the  inevitable 
lessons  of  the  medical  profession  has, 
alas,  to  be  emphasized  in  the  post-mor- 
tem room;  viz.,  that  all  human  intelli- 
gence is  human  still.  No  lesson  is  more 
needed  than  this  by  would-be  advocates 
of  Christ's  way  of  life.  That  such  a 
■tader  of  men  as  Joshua,  who  so  suc- 
cessfully brought  his  people  into  their 
promised  land,  should  allow  to  go  on 
record  the  repeated  divine  entreaties  to 
keep  up  his  courage  suggests  the  recog- 
nition on  his  part  of  another  of  our 
[57] 


ATTRACTIVE 

greTptest  needs.  Others  besides  popes 
have  lacked  courage  to  abandon  inde- 
fensible positions,  such  as  that  the  world 
was  flat,  until  they  were  forced  to  do 
so  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Their 
reason  was  simply  the  hoary  antiquity 
of  the  point  in  question  and  their  own 
lack  of  wisdom.  "Let  them  say"  is  a 
far  better  answer  to  "^Vhat  will  men 
say?"  than  any  dictated  by  fear,  which 
does  despite  to  such  common  sense  as 
we  do  possess. 

The  clinic  of  two  surgeons  at  the  in- 
significant town  of  Rochester  in  Minne- 
sota has  become  world  famous  and  world 
useful  because  of  their  willingness,  their 
eagerness  in  fact,  to  abandon  methods 
or  theories  which  new  knowledge  had 
superseded,  even  though  in  their  day 
and  generation  they  might  have  served 
to  save  life. 

Fearlessness  is  a  vital  factor  in  real 
faith.  To  boast  of  the  little  we  believe 
is  a  confession  of  weakness.  It  is  an 
evidence  of  manliness  and  the  road  to 
achievement  to  be  able  to  believe  much. 
It  was  no  sign  of  credulity  in  Fulton  that 
he  should  have  wished  to  be  buried  on 
[581 


uTii-fa" 


y^ 


THE    ATTRACTIVE    WAY 


*?-'-^ 


the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  so  sure  was  he 
that  some  day  the  sound  of  vessels  pro- 
pelled by  steam  would  resound  over  its 
waters. 

Men  will  always  flock  to  the  colors  at 
the  call  to  service,  if  only  they  are  the 
right  colors.  Not  infallibility,  but  com- 
mon sense  and  unselfish  courage;  not 
denunciation,  but  courageous  optimism 
and  the  humility  which  characterizes 
aspiration  are  the  colors  the  display 
of  which  will  without  fail  to-day  and 
every  day  rally  men  to  the  company 
of  Jesus  Christ. 


[Ml 


It        i 


-.••>,-*' 


WILL  ALWAYS* 
FLOCK  TO  THE  COLORS  AT 
THE  CALL^TO  SERVICE.  IF 
ONLY  TH^Y  ARE  THE 
RIGHT   COLORS." 


I    : 


%f- 


^ 


•if-'* 


\ 


•^'m' 


m- 


^Fk      «R' 


■'A 


*t 


ij#«^'i««fa*kv 


I 


"NOT  INFALLIBILITY,  BUf 
COMMON  SENSE  AND  UN- 
SELFISH COURAGE; NOT 
DENUNCIATION,  BUT  COUR- 
AGEOUS OPTIMISM." 


■■•*• 


.  ^?p^' 


-si 

M 


'S...*' 


*4    •* 


iHgi 


